Tag: life

I keep hearing on the radio and Internet about how the economy is recovering from the recession. The stock market is back up and high-end retail sales are up and unemployment numbers may, possibly, perhaps, might be starting to turn around. But I haven't seen any evidence that things are actually getting any better. In fact, all the evidence I've seen suggests things will only be getting worse.

For instance, in December 2010 the Secretary of Energy announced that DOE employees and DOE contractors (which I fall into) will have a pay freeze in effect until January 2013. That means my income is not likely to change. However, since December 2010 all of our expenses have gone up not insignificantly.

Gas prices here are nearing $4 a gallon and all expectations suggest that they will continue to rise. In December, they were around the $3 per gallon mark. So we have to absorb a 33% (and possibly higher) increase in gas prices with no possibility of wage increases.

We don't have cable or satellite television, but we do have a Netflix subscription. The price of the same Netflix plan increased from $9 to $11 per month—a 22% increase for the same service.

Our Internet connection increased by $5 per month with no upgrade in service—a 14% increase.

Food prices have been steadily increasing over the last several months. For instance, a head of lettuce used to be about $1.50. This week I decided not to buy it because the lettuce was up to $3 a head and the heads were probably about 2/3 the previous size. I understand there is apparently a nationwide lettuce problem, but in a more general nature we used to get by on about $80 per week in groceries, but the last several weeks have been closer to $100.

Now, this isn't to say that we're struggling. We're still very blessed to be able to put the same amount of money into savings each paycheck and contribute to our retirement account at the same level we have been. But we are having to make some adjustments to maintain the balance. We've been doing a lot better about not eating at Panda Express as often as we used to (within walking distance, so tasty, so hard to resist). And the Social Security payroll tax reduction that went into effect in January has also helped soften the blow of rising prices.

But all the pundits that keep pretending things are getting better don't seem to be living in the same world as us. We're not going to be increasing our spending on non-essentials so long as necessities keep going up in price. Of course, Netflix is a luxury we can live without (and we're paying for it out of our luxury spending), but Internet access is very close to essential these days, and I don't like having to sacrifice fresh produce (I like lettuce on my sandwiches and tacos!).

Valentine's Day this year was fairly standard. I always find it humorous to see the guys dressed like thugs trying to act tough while they're waiting in line with a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates at the grocery store.

Surprisingly, Livermore has more than 1 (and at least 3!) gourmet cupcake stores. I decided to give one of them a shot and ordered a half-dozen gourmet cupcakes for Jess. I brought them home at lunch, along with some flowers. There were 3 vanilla and 3 chocolate cupcakes. The chocolate ones had a cream filling. They were very tasty. Jess happened to like the vanilla more than chocolate and I liked the chocolate more than vanilla, so it worked out well.

For dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory. We knew it was going to be busy, but it was busier than I expected. We got there around 6 and there was already a 2-hour wait. But, it's located at the mall, so we just spent the time wandering around the mall. The food was good and we, of course, each ordered a slice of cheesecake to take home and eat once we weren't completely full.

Per Jess' traditions we needed to decorate the tree today (today being the first Saturday in December). This, of course, necessitates having a tree to decorate. So we had to go and get a tree. Per Dickerson traditions this requires cutting our tree down ourselves after trudging around in the snow at least until you can't feel your toes, preferably until someone is crying. Unfortunately, California weather doesn't really cooperate with those requirements (though I suppose we could drive into the mountains far enough if necessary).

So instead we headed out to the Christmas tree farm that we went to last year in the 50 degree sunshine. We found a fairly decent looking tree and I cut it down. And yes, it's on the side of a hill, which is why the fence is crooked.

In no time at all we had Beatrice (last year's tree was named Albert, this year's is Beatrice) tied onto Chloe and ready to travel.

The main difference from last year being that we actually went during the day and not as the sun was setting. Easier to work when you have light. We got the tree home and set it up. TADA!

Check out that spotlight work on the angel.

Jess cheated and slipped some new ornaments into the ornament box as presents for me. Then tried to make me feel stupid for not recognizing them at all. But they are pretty neat. She used a Linux program which will convert a picture into a cross-stitch pattern for you. This one is my Mii from the Wii:

And this is the Linux Penguin, named Tux:

Since I had the camera out and on the tripod already (since I needed the tripod to get decent shots) I started playing with things. Here's my abstract art of our tree:

And this is what happens when you zoom in on the tree while the exposure is being taken:

We spent some time watching the Livermore Christmas Parade (I suppose it's probably called the "Holiday Parade" or "Winter Parade" or something, but it does end with Santa). And we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol while decorating.

Oh! And we hung up our stockings! Jess' mom made her children stockings and last year made one for me too, so Jess and I have matching stockings. They're quite lovely.

A new grassroots campaign has started the website FlyWithDignity.org to continue to raise awareness on the issue of airport security.

They are collecting "signatures" in their online petition. Now, I'm not naive. I don't expect the online petition to be used for anything particularly meaningful. However, they do verify email addresses and it at least represents a set of unique email addresses that have at least cared enough to voice their opinion on the matter. At a minimum it stands to contradict the news sources that claim very few people actually care about this problem.

In other news, the TSA head, John Pistole, was in front of a Senate Oversight committee today. From the Consumerist website:

He used the analogy that if passengers had the option of getting on two planes to the same destination -- one which had been fully screened but which took a little longer and required scanners or pat-downs, and the other with no screening -- "I think everyone will want to opt for the screening with the assurance that everything is safe and secure."

I'd like to point out how he carefully constructs a false dichotomy and uses that to defend the invasive screening procedures. In reality our choices are not limited to invasive screening or no security. I'd be perfectly happy to invoke choice C, returning to the level of security we had 9 months ago. Total number of successful terrorist attacks involving planes from October 2001 to 2010 before the new procedures: 0.